Chum Cheub Interview – Community Patrol Team Leader as part of the Worldfish project in Cambodia

Community patrol with Chum Cheub in the foreground

“I was working as village guard when the former commune chief asked me to join with patrol teams under the project. I thought I had been doing similar tasks for sometime and getting involved in this project as a patrol member would not make much difference and also because I like this place and I like eating fish.

Since I am with the project I see that the Community Fisheries team is becoming more organized.

We have been working hard to suppress illegal fishing as more sophisticated gears are used. Although I see more fish to catch this year I think it is hard to say if the increase is due to the project alone or also because of the flood. We know that flood contributes to fish productivity. I say this because I do not want other people to say that I advocate for the project because I am in the team… I want people to use their sense.
The main changes I see in the process is that our team works in a collaborative and coordinated fashion across the whole site, we work closely with rangers and we also have the support from the commune authority, the former commune chief was instrumental in the process but the current one is so new and he may need time. We also see that fishers are more aware about the rules and flags and sign marks we place on the site.
I do not know the future but if we look at it from another way around, we can say what would happen if we do not protect the fisheries, with more sophisticated gears including the type of illegal fishing.”